Thursday, June 4, 2009

Faking It

Where are my headphones I asked?
You can track your order online - they replied
See tracking order above for details - thanks for that then!

As I've probably mentioned before I'm a bugger for a bargain - charity shops (mainly books), T K Maxx (best buy to date a leather jacket reduced from £450 to £47) and of course the online goldmine that is eBay.

A couple of years back I took a bid-based punt on two polo shirts - a Fred Perry and a Penguin 'Earl' - both of which were listed with crazy cheap 'Buy Now' prices. When they finally arrived from the far east, the trademark penguin logo had more lean than the Tower of Pizza, and the Fred Perry, despite making a claim of 100% cotton, crackled like a static storm everytime it was removed.

But, I bounced back and tried a couple more bargain buys (from other 'Bayers this time, and still a third of the high street price). Perfect. Two years on and these clone-clothes are washing and wearing like a dream. Since then I've knowingly bought Converse, a Limited Edition Bathing Ape edition Casio G-Shock watch and reproduction Seditionaries t-shirts. All of which are hooky but authentic enough to be believable and and well made enough to be durable (unlike the first two fake-offs).

However, I am a low-level fuss pot about sound quality, and recently snapped up a pair of Sennheiser PX200 headphones listed on eBay at half the RRP. The delivery seemed to be taking longer than expected, so a quick peep of the sellers feedback rating revealed a history of fakery, neutral feedback and partial refunds. Whoops.

I'll live with a fake that looks and wears like the real thing, but can knock-off headphones actually simulate the sound fidelity of real deal Sennheisers or will it just be dodgy market electronics re-badged and branded as something superior?

I'll let you know if they ever arrive..

17 comments:

Keith said...

We have a flea market near where I live that has all sorts of great fakes. The police are always trying to bust it up, but it keeps going. I've bought plenty of things from those guys myself.

Matthew Rudd said...

You've just reminded me to buy a new set of cans. Ta for that!

Mondo said...

We have boot sales Keith a breeding ground for dodgy copies of DVDs. I used to buy pirate tapes of chart albums from markets, but side 2 was always muffly or wobbly.

I should have gone for the Sennheiser CX300's cheaper and the real thing via Amazon. I've also got some Beyer ones for home use Matt - any other recommendations though?

Cocktails said...

I've never bought clothes off ebay. I can't bring myself to - how do you know that they will fit?

Sounds like you need a trip your local trusty hi-fi shop too. I'm not convinced by rip-off electronic equipment, but rip-off copied software is good. My £5 Dreamweaver/Flash package works a treat.

Cocktails said...

Actually, maybe I shouldn't write that kind of thing online...

planet mondo said...

I only buy T shirts, polo shirts, zip-up tops and trainers Cocktails - which are all standard fittings really - I wouldn't be confident of trousers or denim jackets though..

Usually I'll only buy legit electrical items, and I only realised these were dodge, after paying for them..

Having said that all my mixes are done via an iffy copy of Ableton..

Jon Peake said...

Every time I've bought clothes off Ebay they've not fitted properly. So I'm never doing that again. I did buy some shoes from Amazon and they're like a dream.

One just has to be very careful.

Kolley Kibber said...

I had a run of being quite lucky with buying clothes on Ebay (mainly coats, which tend to be less hit-and-miss sizewise.).I passed the good karma on, by lovingly laundering and beautifully packaging everything I sold. Then I got suckered on a couple of crappy items which arrived dirty and manky, and I was quite put off the whole thing. I went back to the charity shops, which is probably better for all sorts of reasons.

There's a great flea market up the road from me as well.

Mondo said...

So far I've been dead lucky using Ebay as a boutique.. everything's fitted and I've found some quality clobber and t-shirt designs you just can't find in the high st featuring Planet Of The Apes, New York Dolls, T Rex. - plus a couple of great vintage bits Fred Perry zip-up, and a seventies Admiral zip-up.

At the mo' I'm on a buzz for seventies US soccer repro tops (New York Cosmos, L.A Aztecs)- and is the 'bay is just the place to grab them.

I've just remembered I was wearing one of my Fake Perrys at Clare's do last summer FC

Piley said...

'ooky DVDs and CDs were great on ebay, before they got so good at blockin em.

Never tried the fake clothing, but may be worth a punt.

How bout that snide Coke that turns up in the market and sometimes in iffy sarnie bars??! Always has Arabic writing on it... it don't taste right at all! Someone told me there is a different recipe for different countries... I don't rate Arabic coke at all, although not crazy on coke full stop. Arabic Pepsi is the future!

P

Matthew Rudd said...

I've got a cheap but reasonably snazzy looking pair from Maplin's on order. You don't need to spend big when all you're doing is prefading Yazz records once a week, even if it is tax deductible...

Furtheron said...

love the tracking site... LOL

Mondo said...

P - I have seen it, Maltsesers seem to have Arabic script on the back too (you'd think it would be Turkish Delight really), d'ya reckon they're dodge.

Can't stand Coke in bottles (too oily tasting), although don't mind it cans. But Pepsi is better bottled than canned (too tinny).

Matt - I'll let you know how these iffy Senn's turn out.

Great isn't it F-Ron, well at least the consignment number made sense

Matthew Rudd said...

My Sennheisers have arrived. They look great. They cover my ears. But I've yet to plug them into anything...

Mondo said...

Easter Egg earphones - fab. My fakeys arrived this morning - incredible they've actually cloned the sound quality too. I've owned several legit pairs of PX200s and you'd be pushed to tell the diff'

BLTP said...

got my cx 500 on amazon for the sort of price that makes ebay knock offs pointless. Never bothered before but the hting i've noticed is that physically they've lasted longer than the cheaper ones so in terms of value for money they are a winner. hjad for year and still going strong as before I would go through a pair every 2 months!

Gabbi said...

I hope you don't get ripped off Mondo! It sounds really shady but maybe you'll be in the few that left positive feedback to these scam artists. If they suck be sure to complain... it works sometimes. If they get too many comments and complaints they get shut down by ebay.